


(You Are) The Best Part Of My Life

by watercolouredreams



Category: Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018), Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018) Actor RPF
Genre: Coming Out, Established Relationship, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Pet Owner
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-03
Updated: 2020-01-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:48:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22095118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/watercolouredreams/pseuds/watercolouredreams
Summary: Ben is (kind of) obsessed with Instagram and a certain redhead, and sometimes makes disastrous mistake too.
Relationships: Ben Hardy & Joe Mazzello, Ben Hardy/Joe Mazzello
Comments: 10
Kudos: 27
Collections: Hardzzello Week 2019





	(You Are) The Best Part Of My Life

**Author's Note:**

> This is for Day #4 prompt of Hardzello Week 2019, 'Pets'. Short and sweet.

**_If my life is a movie, you’re the best part_ **

**_(Parallel Heart Universe, future)_ **

It was, all things considered, an honest mistake.

Ben had been spending almost the entire morning in the backyard of their LA home, getting in and out of the pool with Sammy and sitting and lying around on the deck chair as well as the grass with the pup. Sammy is playing with his chew toy while Ben is looking through his phone. It’s his downtime, he had just finished filming an indie movie in Aberdeen where it was pretty much raining almost everyday and  _ bloody _ freezing, so he is just happy to come home to sunny California to be with Joe and Sammy again.

Joe is away at work though, writing and co-producing a Netflix original that has just began shooting here. Soon, he will start travelling to overseas locations, and Ben would be busy with a new project again, this time in London, where at least he will have his friends around. 

Speaking of friends, he has been looking through Instagram stories posted by them and people he follows on the platform. He responded to some, indicating that he’s on a break from work, and then decides on a whim to look through the filters on Instagram camera and play around with them. When Sammy comes up to him, nuzzling and licking the side of his face, he presses the record button.

“Sammy, say hi to daddy,” he gathers the puppy closer to his face. Sammy happily put both his paws on Ben’s face, and when he sees Ben intently looking at the phone screen and smiling, he too looks upward to the display. Perhaps intrigued by the image of himself and his dad, or perhaps thinking there’s another pup and another dad in there, he outstretches his paw gingerly so it touches the screen.

“Come home early babe, we miss you. Your mom just called to ask if we’re coming down this weekend, and Laura says she misses us too--” he trails off when Sammy, growing more and more curious, attempts to knock the phone off and out of Ben’s grip with his paws. “Hey Sammy boy, calm down. It’s just you and me in there, see? Do you miss daddy too?” Sammy barks by way of an answer, and Ben laughs when the pup, getting excited, starts licking his face again. “Me too. Okay, let’s jump into the pool one more time,” he says to Sammy, and turning to the screen display again, “Guess I’ll see you soon Joe, love you,” he says before stopping the recording.

When they’re on Instagram, which is actually quite often, unlike what other people are inclined to believe, they sometimes send short videos privately to each other. Except for the occasional posts and flirtatious comments exchange, they rarely, if ever, share anything openly anymore. They thought that a few months after Bohemian Rhapsody, all the often overwhelming and unnecessary attention from fans would gradually disappear, but it has been years--and countless films and projects later--and they’re still hounded on their social media accounts. They don’t fancy themselves as celebrities, just an actor and a writer-director who love doing what they do, and also happen to be in love with each other, so they never quite got used to the attention that they have never sought in the first place. While they’re grateful for the interest, it doesn’t usually translate into anything professionally beneficial or meaningful to their career anyway. So they try to keep a polite distance, maintaining their privacy at all times. Especially now that they’re in a relationship. He wasn't paying much attention when he clicks the next button, because Sammy is pawing and nuzzling his arm and face, but it's more or less the button he usually presses to send the video as a private story message to Joe.

Or so he thought.

It took all but ten minutes. No, maybe even less than that. It took him and Sammy ten minutes of swimming in the pool before coming out and realizing that his Instagram had gone bonkers with notifications.

“What the bloody--”

And then it hits him.

_ It couldn’t be, could it? _

He clicks on the notification and it confirms his worst suspicions. He had mistakenly posted the video as his story, accessible to anyone, followers or not, instead of sending it as a message to Joe. His inbox is flooded with messages from nobody he actually knows.

“ _ Oh fuck _ .”

He opens the story, watches it once, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. He deletes it, runs a palm down his face and groans. Perhaps sensing his dad’s change of mood, the pup comes to rest his chin on Ben’s knee.

“Sammy,” he says with a heavy sigh. “I’m  _ fucked _ .”

He takes a deep breath and tries to calm down. Tries to rationalize it. It's not like it will come out in the news or anything like that. They're not that kind of celebrities. They're not celebrities, period. They don’t make the main gossip feed, which is great. The worst that could happen is, okay, the flood of messages from fans who follow them on Instagram, and then there are people who actually know them, close friends. Who basically already know that they’re together anyway. The grey area would probably be acquaintances; people who know them professionally but not personally. Maybe they’ll ask questions. Well of course, there’s also the chance that they had not seen the video too. So many possibilities, none is actually certain.

He towels himself dry as his thought comes full circle, returning to the first thing he had thought about but dare not ask himself earlier. Did Joe see it? And if he did, what would he say? He groans inwardly. He wants to know, but at the same time, he doesn’t. 

Right on time, as if on cue, his phone rings. It's Joe.

"Hey  _ babe _ ." 

Ben grimaces. Joe had seen the video. Of course. "Hey," he exhales. "You saw it, didn't you." It wasn't a question. 

"Yes, I did." 

Ben lets out a heavy sigh. "It was my mistake, I should have been more careful--"

"Hey, it's--"

"--I was looking at Sammy--"

"--okay. I miss you and Sammy too. Will come home a little earlier today." 

"Really?" 

"Really." 

Ben bites his lip. "Aren't you at least a little mad at me?" 

"Yes, I am, a little." 

"I'm sorry." Ben hears Joe hums distantly at the other end of the line, and he doesn't know what to make of it. "What do we do if anyone ask?" he blurts the question without thinking.

"What have we been doing all this while whenever people ask?" 

"You like to tell people we're soulmates. I flirt and tease inappropriately." 

"And I love it every time you do." Ben can't help but laugh a little nervously. He still can't quite figure out what's going on in Joe's mind right now.

"I'm getting long stares and a few giggles from the younger crew members right at this very moment. I'm guessing it's not because my fly is open or anything like that. I checked." 

Ben bites his lip to stop from laughing out loud. " _ I'm sorry _ ," he whispers a little desperately.

"Ben, it's okay. It happened, so it must have had to. We just need to move to another country and change our names, wipe our identities--" 

"Joe!" he whines a little, and his older boyfriend laughs, and Ben kinda hates him right now, but at least he's being sarcastic so he's not really that angry. Or at least he hopes so. 

"Yeah, I'm not really that mad, even. How could I?" Ben wonders belatedly if he had said his thoughts out loud. "You two were being  _ absolute cuties _ ." 

"Joe, seriously--" 

"Ben, seriously. Okay maybe I freaked out for about two seconds when I saw it on your story but that's about it." 

"That's about it?" 

"Yeah, that's about it."

Ben sighs. "My inbox is full of messages from people I don't know. I'm a fucking idiot." 

"Same, but hasn't it always been like that, anyway? Fans send us DMs all the time. We barely know them." 

"Joe, it's okay if you're mad at me. I'm mad at myself too."

"I told you I was a little bit mad. But I also love you, so."

"So?"

Joe laughs. "So that's it. You drive me mad most times anyway, what's new?" 

"Oh  _ fuck you _ ."

"Would you? I’ll take that as a promise."

"Joe." 

"Yes babe."

"I love you." 

"I know. That's what I've been trying to tell you. You can tell me about how it happened when I get home, I'll kiss you and you'll feel better after that. Okay?" 

“Okay. Still feel like an idiot though.”

“Well, we can always elope to Canada. You love Montreal, don’t you?”

Ben laughs. At himself. “What the fuck was I thinking?” He’s referring to the video.

“About me, obviously.”

“That’s the case, apparently.”

Joe laughs.

“Can I switch off my phone for the rest of the week?” That’s how long he will be in LA. Joe laughs again.

“Why not, maybe that will cure your obsession with Instagram.”

“Only because I’m obsessed with you, obviously.”

“ _ Obviously _ . I should be worried if you’re not. Hey, look,” his voice lowers a little, “we’ll talk more about this obsession of yours when I get home, okay? I really have to go now.”

“Okay.” He does feel a little better now, actually.

“Ben.”

“Yeah.”

“You  _ are _ an idiot.” Ben laughs a little and thinks that he probably deserves being called that. “But you’re  _ my _ idiot, and I love you.”

Ben closes his eyes, thinks that  _ yes, that sounds alright, actually _ . “I love you too, Joe.”

And they hang up.

  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> This is also my way of compensating the fact that I get no birthday wish for Ben from Joe. I am sad.


End file.
